The collected works.

October 15, 2012

The play is called Our Town.

A friend and I stopped by this cemetery, in Connellville, PA, on our way back from a hike at a nearby state park. We had noticed it on the way in -- those trees that you see in the background are right by the highway we were on, and were gaspingly gorgeous.

I kept muttering about Our Town, my favorite play, while we there, and this cemetery does indeed look like the setting of Thornton Wilder's third act in that play. I couldn't get over it. Thankfully for my friend, I couldn't quite remember the passage from the Stage Manager's act-opening speech that I wanted to quote, but here it is:

This is certainly an important part of Grover's Corners. It's on a hilltop -- a windy hilltop -- lots of sky, lots of clouds -- often lots of sun and moon and stars.

You come up here, on a fine afternoon and you can see range on range of hills -- awful blue they are -- up there by Lake Sunapee and Lake Winnipesaukee...and way up, if you've got a glass, you can see the White Mountains and Mt. Washington -- where North Conway and Conway is. And, of course, our favorite mountain, Mt. Monadnock's right here -- and all these towns that lie around it: Jaffrey, 'n East Jaffrey, 'Peterborough, 'n Dublin and, there, quite a ways down, is Grover's Corners....

Yes, an awful lots of sorrow has sort of quieted down up here. People just wild with grief have brought their relatives up to this hill. We all know how it is... and then time...and sunny days...and rainy days...'n snow...We're all glad they're in a beautiful place and we're coming up here ourselves when our fit's over.